


Mouth

by bejesusness



Category: Teeth - Hannah Moskowitz
Genre: M/M, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 03:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17072921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bejesusness/pseuds/bejesusness
Summary: Rudy, now in college, is visiting his family during winter break, when he hears a familiar voice calling to him from the ocean.





	Mouth

I’m on my way to the market when I hear it.

“Rudy!”

I freeze. I can feel my heart flip over. I turn to face the ocean, and there he is. Smiling like a jackass. Like he’d never even left. Like it hasn’t been four years. Like I haven’t missed him every goddamn second he’s been gone.

So of course I run over to the water. And I stop again and I realize it’s been four years. A lot can change in four years. People can change.

And I realize that I don’t know if he’s missed me as much as I missed him. Surely not. I’ve missed him a lot. Like, it’s embarrassing, how much I missed my stupid fishboy.

And, oh, it hits me. I know how I feel about him. I’ve known for four years. And a part of my heart has been aching every single moment of those four years, and suddenly it’s too much.

Did he care about me as much as I did him? In the same way? Have his feelings of me, whatever they are, changed?

But I push all of that out of my head because he’s _here_ , leaning on the dock, and he’s _smiling at me_ and god I am so far gone for this beautiful ugly fishboy.

I am so damn happy to see him.

I put a hand on my hip like mom does when she’s about to start an argument. “What the hell are _you_ doing here?” I ask, but I can feel the big-ass smile on my face as I say it.

Teeth bites his lip and waves his tail to the side. “I was in the area. Thought I’d stop by. Make sure weren’t causing any more trouble.”

“Me?” I say, “The only trouble I got in was because of _you_.”

“Whatever,” he says and rolls his eyes.

The next thing I know I am soaked because I am in the water and Teeth and I are hugging and suddenly I have to try so hard not to cry.

“I missed you, Rudy,” he says, although I almost can’t hear him because he has his face buried in the crook of my neck. He’s holding onto the back of my shirt like his life depends on it. I’m not doing too much better, though. It’s a wonder we’re managing to stay above water.

“I missed you too, Teeth. I didn’t think you’d ever come back.”

He leans back and looks at me. “Did you not want me to?”

Pause, Rudy. Don’t say anything to come across as the needy bastard you so obviously are. Don’t tell him how much you wished he’d never had to leave in the first place. Don’t tell him about all the times you sat staring at the ocean looking even though you knew you wouldn’t find him. Don’t tell him how absolutely head over heels you are for him. Don’t ruin it saying something stupid.

I settle on, “I am so glad you did.” I feel like I’m going to cry again. It sucks.

“Look at my tail,” Teeth says. I guess he’s had enough feelings for now, too. “See? It healed better than I thought it would. And my teeth are sharp again.” He bites a couple times like that bratty girl on _Finding Nemo_ to show me. “And my hair grew long again, see?”

“I noticed, yeah. I-” Shit. For some reason I am suddenly pulled back to reality.

“What?” Teeth asks, and he’s frowning. I guess something must be showing on my face.

“I’m leaving in a week.”

“What?”

“I’m in college now. I’m only here for Christmas vacation. I have to go back.”

“But I just came back. I came back for you. I thought- I thought you were whatever.”

In love with you? That can’t be what he’s thinking. Surely he knows the words for that. “Homeschooled?” I try, “It doesn’t work like that with college. Well not here on this island with no internet or anything.”

“I thought you were a good friend.”

Oh. He’s not looking at me anymore and my heart hurts again. I can’t blame it, though. These past few minutes alone have been a lot. “I wish I could stay longer.” And I do. I really, really do. But my parents would kill me if I dropped out of college so I can stay on the island and try to pursue a relationship with the fishboy. I wish I could take him back with me.

“But I’ll be able to come back again in, uh,...” January, February, March, when is spring break again? “a couple months.”

He runs his fingers through the water, as if he just noticed it there. “How’s your brother?” he asks.

“He’s doing good.” As long as he eats the fish. But of course, I don't say that.

“That’s good,” he says, and he looks relieved.

Neither of us say anything after that, so I take the opportunity to climb back up onto the dock. At least it’s midday and the water isn’t freezing. Well, not as freezing as it will be later.

“So your whatever,” Teeth says. “College. What’s that?”

“It’s a type of school. You learn how to do stuff that you need to know so you can get a certain job.”

“What job are you learning to do stuff for?”

“Marine biology,” I say.

“Oh. Cool. I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s… I study the stuff that lives in the ocean.”

He perks up and smiles. Shit. He’s figured me out. “Like me,” he says.

“Yeah,” I say softly. Because what else can I do? Did I choose my career path based on an encounter I had with a certain fishboy four years ago? While that’s not the _only_ reason I picked marine biology, I can’t exactly say no.

“Rudy.”

“Yeah?”

“Help me get up.”

I help pull him out of the water and onto the dock. We both just sit there a moment, side by side, staring out at the sea. I wonder if I should tell him. I wonder if he would feel the same. I wonder if he would wait for me to come back spring break. I wonder if his heart does the flippy thing, too.

“Rudy?” he almost whispers it, but I can hear him perfectly.

“Yeah?” I ask, and I turn my head and he’s _right there_ and he cups my face with one of his slimy webbed hands and I can’t take it anymore.

I lean forward and kiss him.

He kisses me back.


End file.
